(Crossover prog / Neo-prog) Shakary - Alya 2006 / The Last Summer 2006 (2CD) - 2006, FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

The promising Swiss formation Shakary just released a 'limited double-CD editiondigipack' featuring a selection of tracks from their two studio albums Alya (2-CD from 2000) and The Last Summer (2002), re-recorded, re-mixed and re-mastered. Clepsydra singer Aluisio Maggine is replaced by Noel McCalla (Manfred Mann's Earth Band) and on one track Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) and Steve Rothery (Marillion) deliver their distinctive guitar work.

CD1 entitled Alya 2006 contains nine songs, these sound as wonderful symphonic prog with hints from legendary neo-prog band early Marillion: melodic, harmonic and tasteful, from dreamy to compelling bombastic. The sound of the keyboards is very lush and I was carried away many times by very moving, often howling guitar soli. To me the vocals by Noel McCalla are a pleasant contribution to Shakary their music, the vocals remind me of the dramatic undertone of Damien Wilson. A strong point is the swirling violin work in some tracks, the Eddie Jobson fans will be delighted! A nice surprise is the track Sentence, halfway we hear a fiery and howling guitar solo by Arjen Lucassen and during the wonderful final part Steve Rothery delivers a sensitive guitar solo, it sounds like 'early Marillion time'! Another good track is Open Skies featuring dynamic prog with exciting keyboard work (including a violin-Mellotron sound), a howling guitar solo and pleasant play on trumpet and violin, what a beautiful and lush sound.

CD2 entitled The Last Summer 2006 contains seven compositions, again Shakary makes wonderful symphonic prog with echoes from early Marillion, like "symphonic prog meets neo-prog". It sounds very dynamic, from subdued and mellow to propulsive and bombastic with a lush instrumentation: beautiful interplay between harpsichord, vocals and violin in Dreaming In L.A., a spectacular synthesizer solo in Love Warchild Of 64, a swinging piano and compelling bombastic prog with howling guitar in The Play Of My Life, twanging acoustic guitar and warm vocals in Two Days Left and a child-choir and the sound of bagpipes in the strongly build-up final song Sparkles In The Dark. On CD2 Noel McCalla does a good job too, I love his voice.

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 29. October 2010, 21:41

Shakary / Shakary 2006 I: Alya 2006

Used drive : ASUS DRW-24B1LT Adapter: 1 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : Yes
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\FLAC\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=%e" %s -o %d

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:07.74 | 0 | 14098
2 | 3:07.74 | 6:19.34 | 14099 | 42557
3 | 9:27.33 | 5:58.02 | 42558 | 69409
4 | 15:25.35 | 4:47.66 | 69410 | 91000
5 | 20:13.26 | 6:06.45 | 91001 | 118495
6 | 26:19.71 | 6:09.51 | 118496 | 146221
7 | 32:29.47 | 7:29.60 | 146222 | 179956
8 | 39:59.32 | 6:17.22 | 179957 | 208253
9 | 46:16.54 | 5:44.40 | 208254 | 234093

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename Y:\EAC\wurensh\Shakary\CD1_Alya 2006\Shakary - Shakary 2006 I Alya 2006.wav

Peak level 99.9 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 2A56CDCF
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
Track 7 not present in database
Track 8 not present in database
Track 9 not present in database

None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

End of status report

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 29. October 2010, 22:01

Shakary / Shakary 2006 II: The Last Summer 2006

Used drive : ASUS DRW-20B1ST Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : Yes
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\FLAC\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=%e" %s -o %d

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 7:03.59 | 0 | 31783
2 | 7:03.59 | 10:00.41 | 31784 | 76824
3 | 17:04.25 | 6:24.48 | 76825 | 105672
4 | 23:28.73 | 4:10.02 | 105673 | 124424
5 | 27:39.00 | 4:49.29 | 124425 | 146128
6 | 32:28.29 | 4:50.00 | 146129 | 167878
7 | 37:18.29 | 5:48.73 | 167879 | 194051

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename Y:\EAC\wurensh\Shakary\CD2_The Last Summer 2006\Shakary - Shakary 2006 II The Last Summer 2006.wav

Peak level 99.9 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 8531201B
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
Track 7 not present in database

None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

End of status report